30th Symposium on African American Culture and Philosophy “Exploring the “Humanity” in the Digital Humanities: Africana/Black Studies’ Perspectives on the Digital Humanities”

Purdue University: African American Studies & Research Center

West Lafayette, Indiana

December 1-3, 2016

Plenary Keynote Speaker

As a professor of African American literature and digital humanities, I’ve come to an understanding: the history of Black Studies is the history of African American data. That is to say that the history of Black Studies is in part the discussion of dates, numbers of groups, locations, and historical periods. Black Studies is the history of black data.

When people talk about the histories of Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Studies, they give you numbers and locations like those. 1966. Greensboro. 1968. Oakland. 10-point program.  4 students. 2 students. More than 300 Black Studies programs founded between 1968 and the mid-1970s.

Today, we live in an era of increasing automation. Expansive, complex data sets can reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.